Emma eBook

Emma was almost too much astonished to answer; but
Mrs. Elton hardly waited for the affirmative before
she went on.

“Having understood as much, I was rather astonished
to find her so very lady-like! But she is really
quite the gentlewoman.”

“Mrs. Weston’s manners,” said Emma,
“were always particularly good. Their propriety,
simplicity, and elegance, would make them the safest
model for any young woman.”

“And who do you think came in while we were
there?”

Emma was quite at a loss. The tone implied some
old acquaintance—­ and how could she possibly
guess?

“Knightley!” continued Mrs. Elton; “Knightley
himself!—­Was not it lucky?—­for,
not being within when he called the other day, I had
never seen him before; and of course, as so particular
a friend of Mr. E.’s, I had a great curiosity.
`My friend Knightley’ had been so often mentioned,
that I was really impatient to see him; and I must
do my caro sposo the justice to say that he need not
be ashamed of his friend. Knightley is quite
the gentleman. I like him very much. Decidedly,
I think, a very gentleman-like man.”

Happily, it was now time to be gone. They were
off; and Emma could breathe.

“Insufferable woman!” was her immediate
exclamation. “Worse than I had supposed.
Absolutely insufferable! Knightley!—­I
could not have believed it. Knightley!—­never
seen him in her life before, and call him Knightley!—­and
discover that he is a gentleman! A little upstart,
vulgar being, with her Mr. E., and her carosposo, and her resources, and all her airs
of pert pretension and underbred finery. Actually
to discover that Mr. Knightley is a gentleman!
I doubt whether he will return the compliment, and
discover her to be a lady. I could not have believed
it! And to propose that she and I should unite
to form a musical club! One would fancy we were
bosom friends! And Mrs. Weston!—­
Astonished that the person who had brought me up should
be a gentlewoman! Worse and worse. I never
met with her equal. Much beyond my hopes.
Harriet is disgraced by any comparison. Oh!
what would Frank Churchill say to her, if he were here?
How angry and how diverted he would be! Ah! there
I am—­ thinking of him directly. Always
the first person to be thought of! How I catch
myself out! Frank Churchill comes as regularly
into my mind!”—­

All this ran so glibly through her thoughts, that
by the time her father had arranged himself, after
the bustle of the Eltons’ departure, and was
ready to speak, she was very tolerably capable of
attending.